LibriVox recording of The Egoist, by George Meredith.

The Egoist is a tragicomical novel by George Meredith published in 1879. The novel recounts the story of self-absorbed Sir Willoughby Patterne and his attempts at marriage; jilted by his first bride-to-be, he vacillates between the sentimental Laetitia Dale and the strong-willed Clara Middleton. More importantly, the novel follows Clara's attempts to escape from her engagement to Sir Willoughby, who desires women to serve as a mirror for him and consequently cannot understand why she would not want to marry him. Thus, The Egoist dramatizes the difficulty contingent upon being a woman in Victorian society, when women's bodies and minds are trafficked between fathers and husbands to cement male bonds. (Summary from Wikipedia)

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This audio is part of the collection: The LibriVox Free Audiobook Collection
It also belongs to collections: Audio Books & Poetry; Community Audio

Artist/Composer: George Meredith
Date: 2009-09-05
Source: Librivox recording of a public-domain text
Keywords: librivox; audiobook; literature; tragicomedy; tragicomical; marriage; Victorian society

Creative Commons license: Public Domain

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Reviewer: Randall Curb - - May 16, 2012
Subject: Great book, disappointing readings
"The Egoist" is one of the great comic novels in English. Unfortunately, most of the chapters here are read by people for whom English is clearly not their first language, and they read without any irony, comic timing, or sense of the true nature of the novel. Only one, Martin Gieson, is atune to Meredith's intent. Some of the others mispronounce hundreds of words and read without inflection, in a monotonous cadence. Sadly, I had to give up about halfway through.

Reviewer: WarrenJ - - March 13, 2011
Subject: Egoist
Great and sometimes very funny novel. Clara is an interesting character. Many different readers on this recording, so the standard is uneven, as some are very good and others don't catch the comic side of the story.